Rupert Neudeck
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Rupert Neudeck (; 14 May 1939 – 31 May 2016) was known for his humanitarian work, especially with refugees. He started his career as a noted correspondent for
Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in the ...
, a German public broadcaster.Christoph Koch:
Wie wird man eigentlich … Entwicklungshelfer, Rupert Neudeck?
' In: ''FAZ Hochschulanzeiger.'' September 2004.
Later, he focused on assisting those fleeing conflict. He was noted for his role in assisting thousands of refugees from Vietnam in the late 1970s. Neudeck was a winner of numerous awards, including the Theodor Heuss Medal, the
Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights The Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights is a biennial award created in October 1976 on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Bruno Kreisky. The laureates are rewarded for their achievements in the field of human rights. The prize was divided in 199 ...
, the Erich Kaestner Award and the Walter Dirks Award, and was co-founder of both the
Cap Anamur Cap Anamur is a humanitarian organisation with the goal of helping refugees and displaced people worldwide. In 1979, amidst the rising number of Vietnamese boat people fleeing Vietnam in unseaworthy crafts, Christel and Rupert Neudeck, toget ...
and Green Helmets humanitarian organizations.


Early life and education

Neudeck was born in Danzig, then the
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
(now
Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
, Poland), and lived in
Danzig-Langfuhr Wrzeszcz (pronounced , german: Langfuhr; csb, Wrzészcz) is one of the boroughs of the Northern Polish city of Gdańsk. With a population of more than 65,000 in an area of (population density 6,622), Wrzeszcz is the most populous part of Gdań ...
(now
Wrzeszcz Wrzeszcz (pronounced , german: Langfuhr; csb, Wrzészcz) is one of the boroughs of the Northern Polish city of Gdańsk. With a population of more than 65,000 in an area of (population density 6,622), Wrzeszcz is the most populous part of Gdań ...
) until 1945. In the final months of World War II, when large numbers of German civilians were being evacuated from eastern Germany, his family had received tickets for the passenger ship ''
MV Wilhelm Gustloff MV ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' was a German military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by in the Baltic Sea while evacuating civilian evacuees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia and German military personnel ...
'', which left
Gdingen Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
(now Gdynia) on 31 January 1945 and was sunk by a Soviet submarine with huge loss of life. The Neudecks missed the sailing, which probably saved their lives. He studied various subjects in
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, including law and Catholic theology. Neudeck decided to work in journalism, first as a student editor at the
University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...
, then professionally for Catholic radio. In 1977 Neudeck became a correspondent for
Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in the ...
.


Humanitarian work

In 1979, Rupert Neudeck and his wife Christel, along with a group of friends, formed the committee "A ship for Vietnam" and chartered the commercial freighter ''
Cap Anamur Cap Anamur is a humanitarian organisation with the goal of helping refugees and displaced people worldwide. In 1979, amidst the rising number of Vietnamese boat people fleeing Vietnam in unseaworthy crafts, Christel and Rupert Neudeck, toget ...
'' for a rescue mission to Southeast Asia. The mission eventually saved more than 10,000
Vietnamese boat people Vietnamese boat people ( vi, Thuyền nhân Việt Nam), also known simply as boat people, refers to the refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its h ...
fleeing Vietnam after the war. Following the ''Cap Anamur'' missions, he continued his humanitarian work on various other projects that aided refugees. The Green Helmets (''Grünhelme'') Association, founded in 2003, is dedicated to rebuilding schools, villages, and medical services in various war-torn regions, particularly those in Islamic countries. More recently, he worked to aid Syrian refugees. He was listed on
Unsere Besten ' ("Our Best") is a television series shown in German public television ( ZDF) in November 2003, similar to the BBC series ''100 Greatest Britons'' and that program's spin-offs. In subsequent years, a dozen similar rankings were compiled, mostly ...
("Our Best"), a German poll similar to
100 Greatest Britons ''100 Greatest Britons'' is a television series that was broadcast by the BBC in 2002. It was based on a television poll conducted to determine who the British people at that time considered the greatest Britons in history. The series included in ...
. In 2005, Neudeck was featured in an interview on the Vietnamese entertainment show '' Paris By Night 77'', which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the
fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...
and the work of the Cap Anamur Committee. Neudeck's humanitarian efforts continued up to the time of his death. Most recently he assisted with the emigration of refugees from Syria and Eritrea to Germany. In 2014 Neudeck received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by
Alexandra Hildebrandt Alexandra Hildebrandt (née Weissmann, born on 27 February 1959) is a German human rights activist and museum director of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. In 1995, she married the museum's co-founder and former director Rainer Hildebrandt, and the ...
. The award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights.


Death

Neudeck died on 31 May 2016, from complications after
heart surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...
, aged 77.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neudeck, Rupert 1939 births 2016 deaths German journalists German male journalists German humanitarians People from Gdańsk Members of the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia Naturalized citizens of Germany People from the Free City of Danzig German male writers